Father wakes after crash that killed mother, newborn

Tariq Kurd, the 18-year-old Arab driver, was charged with negligent manslaughter, which carries a sentence of up to 12 years’ imprisonment.

By World Israel News Staff

Ephraim Rimmel is in stable condition after a complicated back surgery, and his 12-year-old son Itai is still in critical condition after sustaining life-threatening injuries to his head and internal organs in a crash that left the mother and her newborn dead, Shaare Zedek hospital said in a statement.

On Dec. 1, near the community of Givat Ze’ev, just north of Jerusalem, the Rimmel’s car was hit by an 18-year-old Arab who was going over the speed limit. The teen slammed into their car from behind and drove it into the car in front of them. Four cars in total were involved in the accident

Tzipi Rimmel, 34, was killed on the spot, and her three-week-old baby girl, Noam Rachel, succumbed to her injuries shortly after being rushed to Hadassah University Hospital.

The Rimmels are from Neve Tzuf, a Jewish town in Samaria.

On Dec. 6., Tariq Kurd, the 18-year-old Arab driver, was charged with negligent manslaughter which carries a sentence of up to 12 years’ imprisonment. At the hearing, police told the court that Kurd was speeding to test out his new car.

“The defendant turned the road into his private experimental lab to test a car he had purchased,” the police said at the time. “He accelerated his car to insane speeds while endangering passengers on the road. The drive was to test the car. We know this because he said so.”

A fundraising campaign on the Jgive site has collected over two million shekels in a few days for the stricken family.